To start up: 8:00 p.m. GMT, Thursday April 11, Anfield, Europa League quarter-final first leg
last 5 matches
- Liverpool DWWLW
- Atalanta LWWD
Liverpool and Atalanta will look to progress towards a place in the Europa League semi-finals, when the two teams face off on Thursday.
The hosts currently sit second in the Premier League, level on points with league leaders Arsenal and one point ahead of third place Manchester City.
Liverpool are coming off a poor performance at Old Trafford, where their Premier League momentum was halted as they drew 2-2 against bitter rivals Manchester United. Liverpool found themselves 1-0 up in the match, but fell behind. A penalty from Mohamed Salah was enough for Liverpool to share the points.
Liverpool will be happy to hear some positive news regarding their team selection, as Diogo Jota, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson have all returned to training. Stefan Bajcetic also made a return, but Jurgen Klopp has confirmed he is likely to play for the U21s before being reinstated to the first team.
Atalanta are currently in 6th position, 5 points behind 5th-placed Roma, but La Dea have a game in hand.
Before their Europa League tie, the Italian club faced Cagliari away. Gianluca Scammaca put Atalanta ahead, but Gian Piero Gasperini’s men were unable to hold on to the lead, with goals from Tommaso Augello and Nicolas Viola sending Atalanta home with a defeat.
The Italians travel to Liverpool with a huge gap in their squad, with Giorgio Scalvini missing both legs with a hamstring injury. The 20-year-old has been impressive this season, normally playing on the left or right of the back three. In their last match, Atalanta settled with three defenders consisting of Rafael Toloi, Berat Djimsiti and former Arsenal player Sead Kolasinac.
These two haven’t met much, but they did face off a few seasons ago in the Champions League group stages. Atalanta came away from Anfield with victory last time out, beating Klopp’s side 2-0. The two goals were scored in the second half by Josip Ilicic and Robin Gosens.
At the Gewiss Stadium, Liverpool ran away with the match by beating Atalanta 5-0, with Salah, Sadio Mane and a Jota hat-trick making the difference.
The two teams will meet again a week later in the return match in Italy.
Key players:
Mohamed Salah: It’s hard to argue with anyone about Salah. Because he has been Liverpool’s main man on a European night since his arrival in 2017.
In the current Europa League campaign, the Egyptian has 4 goals and 3 assists, despite only starting 3 matches in the competition.
Teun Koopmeiners: The Dutch midfielder has become a leading figure in the Atalanta team and has established himself as one of the best midfielders in Serie A.
Koopmeiners has been a real danger from the middle of the park, with 14 league goals this season, but is yet to score a goal in the Europa League this season. Could Thursday be his night?
Prediction:
I think it will be a close match with neither team coming into the match with the better result. That said, Liverpool’s quality in the final third is normally excellent in Europe this season, and I don’t think that will end on Thursday.
Liverpool 3-1 Atalanta
